Prostitution Rational Choice Theory Rational Choice Sex work Criminology Decision-Making Agency
Abstract:
Survey Data from Women’s Experience of Violence: Victimization and Offending in the Context of Women’s Lives, a study which utilized a life event calendar system to gather detailed survey data about the lives of incarcerated women during the 36 months prior to their arrest, is used in analyses in this thesis to better understand prostitution through the lens of Rational Choice Theory. This thesis sought to understand the decision-making model in entering prostitution through risk factors such as arrest, probation, living arrangements, and legal income and reward factors such as substance use, illegal earnings, and other crimes. This analysis revealed a strong positive relationship between hard drug use and illegal earnings with prostitution and a significant negative relationship between probation and drug dealing with prostitution. The findings amongst reward factors are highly consistent with Rational Choice Theory, though the negative relationship between probation unexpectedly did not behave as a risk. Following this analyses’ findings, further empirical evaluations of prostitution considering women and other theories should be pursued in future research.